Giecz Early Piast Stronghold

Giecz on the Moskawa river is one of the oldest and most important strongholds of the early Piast state – some researchers even see it as the dynasty's ancestral seat. Today the site known as Grodziszczko is home to the Archaeological Reserve of the Early Piast Stronghold, a branch of the Museum of the First Piasts at Lednica. You will see ramparts up to 9 m high, the foundations of an unfinished palace with a rotunda, and a wooden church standing on the remains of a Romanesque one.

History: the stronghold that was not burned

The stronghold was founded around 865. In the first half of the 10th century, unlike Poznań and Gniezno, it was not burned and rebuilt from scratch but enlarged – hence the hypothesis that it was from Giecz that the Piasts took control of other Polanian strongholds. Gallus Anonymus wrote that Bolesław the Brave kept 300 armoured warriors and 2,000 shield-bearers here. In 1038 the Bohemian duke Bretislaus I captured it; the inhabitants were deported to Bohemia, where they settled in a village named Hedčany after the Czech name for Giecz. Under Casimir the Restorer the stronghold was rebuilt as the seat of a castellany, and in 1253 a congress of Greater Poland dukes was held here. It was deserted around the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries.

What to see

• The foundations of the palatium with rotunda – a stone building 47 m long, begun in the second half of the 10th century and abandoned at foundation level.
• The remains of St John's Church from the first quarter of the 11th century (30 × 11 m) with an underground relic crypt that has no equivalent in any other church in the Polish lands of that period.
• The wooden baroque Church of St John the Baptist and Our Lady of Consolation from the 18th century, built on the remains of the Romanesque church.
• The ramparts, about 30 m wide at the base; the whole stronghold covers some 3.6 ha.
• A bell tower on the rampart with a bell from 1515, and an archaeological exhibition in the museum building.

Did you know?

Excavations were started in 1949 by Bogdan Kostrzewski, and in 1963 the site became a reserve. Digs resumed in 1993 and continue today. In the neighbouring cemetery from the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries, about 300 burials have been uncovered with temple rings, finger rings and bead necklaces.

Tripto tips

Tickets in 2026: standard PLN 13 (PLN 20 with an audio guide), reduced PLN 8 (PLN 10), children under 7 free, and parking is free. Guided tours for groups must be booked in advance. Allow 1–1.5 hours for your visit. Giecz lies in the Dominowo municipality, Środa County, about 25 km south-west of Gniezno and 30 km south-east of Poznań – easy to combine with Ostrów Lednicki on the Piast Route.